The 2015 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show

The 2015 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show opens to the public on Saturday, February 28th (and runs through March 8th) at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The Philadelphia Flower Show is the world’s oldest and largest indoor flower show and attracts more than a quarter of a million visitors each year.

Visitors to the PHS Philadelphia Flower Show are treated to fabulous designs, live entertainment, culinary demonstrations, gardening how-to workshops, and lectures by experts, and an array of amazing vendors selling everything from flowers, plants, and gardening items to delicious food, jewelry, and crafts of all shapes and sizes. The best news is, the proceeds from the Philadelphia Flower Show benefit PHS (Pennsylvania Horticultural Society), particularly the ‘City Harvest’ program, which feeds more than 1,200 families each week during the growing season.

The theme for the the 2015 Philiadelphia Flower Show is “Celebrate the Movies”, with many of the stunning displays inspired by Disney and Pixar movies. Green Thumb, meet Silver Screen. In an addition to the overall show theme, there are many themed afternoon and evening events including ‘Wedding Wednesday’, ‘Girls Night Out’, ‘Cinderella Sunday’, and ‘Fido Friday’.

From the moment we arrived for media preview day on Feburary 27th, we could tell that this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show was really going to be something special. A giant art-deco theater marquee, flanked by fountains and magnificent displays of roses, is front and center upon entering the main show room.

With so much to see (and smell), we decided to divide and conquer, starting at one corner of the massive showroom and working our way up and down the rows. Of course, this is often easier said than done. A simple glance in any direction can quickly have you forgetting your (walking) lines and send you off script, ad-libbing your way through the show.

The displays this year are simply jaw dropping and had us double taking on several occasions. Some of our personal favorites included the displays inspired by “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, “Cinderella”, “Alice in Wonderland”, and “Winnie The Pooh”.

Once we had spent hours checking out the displays and the rows of award winning plants, we made our way through the vendors area where, despite our best efforts to not spend any money, we left with a beautiful necklace, a glass encased indoor garden, and some taste-bud teasing ‘Watermelon-Cayenne’ salad dressing. We spent over three hours at preview day and even with the small crowd size, still didn’t have enough time to really check everything out.

If you’re heading to the 2015 PHS Philadelphia Flower Show, we highly recommend allowing yourself at least five hours to see everything. With so many things to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, you’ll need a bare minimum of one hour per sense to do this thing the right way.